This post may not seem like anything special to the average person. However to me, and I hope all of the other art education majors, this is a fantastic tool for teaching art history. I stumbled upon this site a couple weeks ago. It is a 360 degree view of inside the Sistine Chapel. You can see everything! It is simple to navigate and crystal clear once it loads. You can also zoom in extremely close. You can probably see more on this website than standing in the Sistine Chapel itself. There are advantages to having a site like this one when teaching Italian Renaissance Art.
For obvious reasons, it is important to show students artwork in art history. Looking at artwork from all the time periods gives different artists and movements in history an image; a style. When looking at a painting off of a power point, it is easy to explain everything going on in the piece because it is all there on one plane, Artwork on the larger scale, such as sculptures and buildings are difficult to explain in a classroom. The photos of that kind of artwork only have one perspective on pieces with endless view points. To have a site like this one to access the entire Sistine Chapel is wonderful. It is like taking a class on field trip to inside that room, which is rather engaging.
In general, the idea of a 360 degree view would be ideal for all three dimensional art pieces. Since we have this technology, it is more popular to find this technique. I have seen it on several web sources, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I feel that this is a huge step forward. Rather than showing students these giant art pieces in disconnected sections (even some sections missing), show them the entire space. That way they are seeing everything that makes up the artwork. Not only that, but they will better understand the lesson being taught.
Link to Sistine Chapel: http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html
Wow it really is amazing! I agree this would be a great site to show students when discussing art history and the work of Michelangelo. Greg just blogged about a similar website that allows you to take a virtual tour through different museums. This is a fantastic technology that is an extremely beneficial tool for teachers. to be able to show students the chapel and zoom around definitely will give them a more realistic perspective of the artwork.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely amazing. I am not an Art major or an Artistic person but I absolutely loved this. This is a great way to inspire your students in creating art, or even studying it. The Chapel is so beautiful and so well done. It took a lot to decorate it and it is definitely inspiring for young artists. This resource is like if you were taking the students on a field trip.
ReplyDeleteRaechel, Thanks for sharing! This is indeed a great tool for everybody to understand art within its context. Specially in places like the inside of the Sistine Chapel where its opulence leaves you breathless. This site brings sensation of being at such a majestic place.
ReplyDelete